CAMBRIDGE, MA - Barbara Bodine, a former career diplomat who served in 2003 as coordinator for post-conflict reconstruction for Baghdad and the central governates of Iraq, and from 1997-2001 as U.S. Ambassador to Yemen, joins MIT's Center for International Studies (CIS) as a Visiting Fellow on May 1, 2006.

Ambassador Bodine, who has already participated in CIS activities, including the Center's Persian Gulf Initiative-a series of workshops that examines specific problems in the Gulf and features experts from the region-will expand her involvement during the coming year, with participation in public forums, conferences and research projects.

"We are honored to welcome Ambassador Bodine to CIS. Because her accomplishments and expertise are both broad and deep, we're certain she will contribute a great deal to the work of the Center, as well as to the larger MIT community," said John Tirman, CIS Executive Director.

Ambassador Bodine, formerly a Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, spent most of her 30-year diplomatic career in the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula. She was Ambassador to Yemen when the USS Cole was attacked in 2000, Deputy Principal Officer in Baghdad during the Iran-Iraq War, and Deputy Chief of Mission in Kuwait during the Iraqi invasion and occupation in 1990. In addition, she received a number of assignments in the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and was Associate Coordinator for Counterterrorism at State, Dean of the School of Professional Studies at the Foreign Service Institute, and Director of East African Affairs.

Ambassador Bodine is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, in Political Science and in Asian Studies, and The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She received the Secretary of State's Award for Valor for her work in occupied Kuwait.

ABOUT THE CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
MIT's Center for International Studies, a dynamic international affairs research center, is home to a variety of research, education, and outreach programs. It seeks to bridge the worlds of the scholar and the policymaker by offering each a place to exchange perspectives, and by encouraging academics to work on policy-relevant problems. Center scholars, and the students they helped educate, have served at senior levels in every administration since the Kennedy years. They are today among the nation's most distinguished analysts and executives in government and the private sector.
CIS:
http://web.mit.edu/cis/Persian Gulf Initiative: http://web.mit.edu/cis/act_pgi.html